Improvement in barrel-heads



PATENT OFFICE.

SOLOMON S. GRAY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN BARREL-HEADS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 117,274, dated July 25, 1871.

To all whomit may concern:

Be it known that I, SOLOMON S. GRAY, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements'in Making and Inserting Heads for Barrels, Casks, &c.; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing making a part of this specification, in Which- Figure l represents a section through a barrel or cask with the heads made and inserted according to my plan, and Fig. 2 represents one ofthe heads, in perspective, ready to be inserted into a cask.

My invention consists in a head for a barrel which is grooved in its perimeter so as to receive and hold a packing while being set in an ordinary croze, and to make a tight joint therein.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the same with reference to the drawing.

A represents abarrel-head, which is chamfered off near its perimeter as at a a. In the edge of the perimeter there may be a slight recess, c, sufcient to catch and retain a packing, e, that is laid therein. The croze f in the barrel is made in the usual form, and when the staves are drawn up against the heads by the hoops or otherwise, and retained by the hoops, it is not absolutely necessary to make a perfectly-tight joint, that there should be a wood-and-wood joint or contact, as the packing supplies any such necessity. Without a packing the wood of the staves should be in direct and close contact with the perimeter of the head to make a tight joint between them; and as incidental to this packing or packed joint, less thickness of wood is required in the head, there is no liability of its splitting in two and so giving way under pressure or external jars, and a cheaper and much closer joint is made. Any kind of elastic, fibrous, or textile substance may be used for a packing 5 a simple cotton, hemp, or ilaX cord answers an excellent purpose. A piece of rubber cord or small tubing makes a good packing. The groove in the rim of the head is convenient in holding the packing in proper position in the croze, and while the staves are being forced up against it.

What I claim as a new article of manufacture, and desire to secure by Letters Patent as such,

A head for a barrel or cask, having a grooved perimeter in which a packing is laid and held while said head is being secured in an ordinary croze of a barrel, as and forthe purpose described.

SOLOMON S. GRAY.

Witnesses:

A. B. STOUGHTON, EDMUND MASSON. 

